They sure are. Great that Lotus bothers to share photos and videos with fans
Yesterday I thought I saw a photo in Autosport with a text "spy shot" but then I couldn't find it again. Now it popped up in an Indonesian site:http://otomotif.kompas.com/read/2012/01 ... enault.R30
Hard to be proud of having a spy shot when Lotus is feeding photos into internet almost in real time

But Autosport posted those spy shots before Lotus posted them, and because it's a private test if Lotus didn't share their photos with us these spy shots could be very valuable

YiNing wrote:But Autosport posted those spy shots before Lotus posted them, and because it's a private test if Lotus didn't share their photos with us these spy shots could be very valuable

Indeed they would have been, in case Lotus would have broken their earlier promise to share photos and videos I suppose the reporter was not aware of Lotus' plans and believed the test to be really secret session. Lotus did a great job sharing continuously new information during the test. Well done Lotus

sejtur wrote:@ reppo well they haven't got much to hide yet, it's still a two year old car! ;) it probably will be back to secrecy at the real tests

Are there anymore big secrets in F1, like double diffusers (banned) or blown diffusers (banned) or reactive ride height systems (not so secret; banned) or next banned innovations what so ever In official winter tests there are full staff working, pr and media around doing what ever they can, so sharing photos to fans like now is on low priority. Teams will anyway be photographing each others' cars as well they can to find every visible details if possible. I think Lotus got a lot of free publicity doing few simple things at the time when anything else was not happening in F1. And why not. At least I enjoyed it

In the wake of Kimi Raikkonen's return to F1 action at Valencia on Monday, Tony Dodgins reckons Lotus had no option but to sign the Finn in a bid to plug the hole left by Robert Kubica

So Kimi Raikkonen is back in the seat, pedalling a two-year-old Renault around Valencia's Ricardo Tormo circuit as I write.

Over the winter I've heard a lot of discussion about whether Renault's decision to sign him was sensible or not. I think it has to be taken as a positive that he's up for thrashing a non-contemporary car around a circuit that's not on the schedule, on tyres he won't be using.

I have no access to Autosport Plus features so I have no idea why Dodgins thinks that way. Surely Lotus knew well in advance that Kubica will not race in 2012. They must have had this year's plan for their driver line up much earlier. I think someone in this forum suggested that Kimi's Williams negotiations halted when LRGP got interested. Could well be but I don't believe Kimi was Lotus' (LRGP's) only option.

Kimi Raikkonen feels 'very positive' after two days re-acclimatising to Formula One in Valencia this week.
After two years away from F1, with Raikkonen primarily competing in the World Rally Championship, the Finn is poised to make a return with Lotus this year.
But as Raikkonen had not driven an F1 car since quitting the sport at the end of the 2009 season, the team decided it would be in his best interests to get some running under his belt.

That saw 2007 world champion Raikkonen run in a two-year-old car and on Pirelli demonstration tyres at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit.
With the first pre-season test in Jerez a fortnight away, the 32- year-old has no doubts he is back up to speed after completing 171 laps and 666 kilometres overall.

'Overall the two days have been helped me a lot,' said Raikkonen.
'Even though I was using a two year-old car and the demonstration tyres, I learnt about working with the team and engineers which means I can focus on the new car once we get to Jerez for the first official test.

'It was great to be driving an F1 car again, and from that respect I feel very positive.'
Lotus' trackside operations engineer Alan Permane claimed the two days with Raikkonen proved to be 'productive and valuable'.

Q. What do you think of Raikkonen's return? Do you think he will be the same as before?

PdlR: Kimi is a great driver with whom I've worked with and for a lot. And I've always said that of all the drivers I've worked with, he's probably the most brilliant. If Lotus can build a competitive car, Kimi could surprise this year.